Mailbag: Ovechkin's case for Rocket Richard Trophy

Here is the Dec. 6 edition of Dan Rosen's weekly mailbag, which will run every Wednesday throughout the 2017-18 NHL season. If you have a question, tweet it to @drosennhl and use #OvertheBoards.
Who is going to take home the Rocket Richard Trophy? Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov or somebody else? Ovechkin back to his dominance? -- @MeierGilles

It's hard at this stage to handicap the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy, which goes to the leading goal-scorer in the NHL at the end of the season. However, this question gives me an opportunity to write about Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals forward, who has an NHL-leading 20 goals, one more than Kucherov, the Tampa Bay Lightning forward. Ovechkin's key statistic is his 14 even-strength goals in 28 games. He is two even-strength goals from matching his total in 82 games last season. His ability to re-establish himself as a major 5-on-5 threat has helped the Capitals become a more balanced team; he's moving his feet more, allowing him to become unpredictable again. Too often last season, Ovechkin was stuck in one spot, the left face-off circle, or trying to get to that spot to get a look. Defensemen knew he was going there, so they could cheat in that direction. Goaltenders knew he was going there, so they could read and react quicker. Now, he's moving around more and scoring more off the rush. As we all know, Ovechkin doesn't need much time or space to get off his shot. He has 578 goals in the NHL; he's likely going to reach 600 this season.

Is the success of the Vegas Golden Knights credited to coach Gerard Gallant's "community" approach to coaching in allowing players to all equally contribute? -- @Final20Hockey
In part, yes, Gallant's ability to use everyone is key. Through their first 27 games, the Golden Knights have 10 forwards in the regular lineup averaging at least 13 minutes of ice time per game but nobody averaging more than 18:21 (William Karlsson). Nate Schmidt led their defensemen with 22:24 of ice time per game. Balance has been a key factor in the Golden Knights' success, but Gallant has no other option but to use everybody. Vegas isn't built to be a team that can ride one defenseman for nearly half the game. The Golden Knights don't have a true No. 1 center or No. 1 defenseman; there are a handful of defensemen in the NHL who can successfully manage 25-plus minutes per game in the same way there are only a handful of forwards who can stay as efficient when their team needs them to play more than 20 minutes per game. Entering Wednesday, there were 14 defensemen playing 25 or more minutes and 23 forwards playing more than 20 minutes.
Managing the balance can be tricky for Gallant because it's easy to think about shortening the bench late in tight games. However, he seems to be able to roll his lines the way he wants to during most games, because he's getting contributions from up and down the lineup.

Who would you like to see win the Stanley Cup before he retires who hasn't yet won? Do you think this year it's possible? If not this year, do you think he actually gets to hoist it at some point before hanging up his skates? -- @mikeybox
Ovechkin, Vancouver Canucks forwards Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin, San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton, New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Patrick Marleau and former Calgary Flames forward Jarome Iginla, who hasn't officially retired but isn't playing this season.
Of that group, only Ovechkin has not been to the Stanley Cup Final.
It's hard to say if any of them will raise the Cup this season, but if I had to rank their chances of doing so in the next two to three seasons, I'd put Marleau first because of the rapid growth of the Maple Leafs. The Stanley Cup drought in Toronto, going on 51 years, could end soon. After Marleau, it would be Ovechkin, Lundqvist, Thornton, Luongo, the Sedins and Iginla, in that order, with the best chance to win before retiring. Ovechkin hasn't gotten beyond the second round of the playoffs yet, but he's 32 years old, the youngest player on this list by three years (Lundqvist is 35), so he has time to break that dubious streak. Lundqvist's window in New York is cracked open. Thornton, 38, and the Sedins, 37, are wild cards because each is playing in the final year of his contract. The Panthers need to show improvements on defense before I can believe Luongo, 38, may get another chance. He also has to stay healthy, but he was injured making a save in a 5-4 shootout loss to the New York Islanders on Monday.

Which team is missing its player lost to the Vegas Golden Knights the most? -- @briantodd34
The Pittsburgh Penguins, because boy they could use goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury right about now.
Granted, goaltender Matt Murray's lower-body injury plays a huge role in why the Penguins are missing Fleury, who isn't healthy enough to play, either, continuing to recover from a concussion. However, Murray has been injury-prone in his short career, yet another reason why the Penguins were terrified of losing Fleury to Vegas. They had no choice because they could protect one goalie and it had to be Murray, 10 years younger than Fleury and already a two-time Stanley Cup champion. Murray would have been selected by Vegas instead of Fleury. However, now is when Pittsburgh pays the price for losing Fleury, who would have been able to stabilize their goaltending situation in Murray's absence. The Penguins instead must operate without an experienced NHL goalie for the time being.
The Capitals' defensive depth took a hit when Schmidt was taken by the Golden Knights. I think they should have protected him instead of center Lars Eller. Forward Jonathan Marchessault was surprisingly not protected by the Florida Panthers, who chose to protect four defensemen instead. The expected development of defensemen Ian McCoshen, Mike Matheson and MacKenzie Weegar should have been enough to make the Panthers leave Alexander Petrovic or Mark Pysyk available so they could protect Marchessault, who scored 30 goals last season. He has 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) in 24 games.

Are you surprised by the Winnipeg Jets? Is Blake Wheeler ever going to get his due as an "elite" forward in this league? -- @propertyjen
I am surprised at how good the Jets have been this season. They are tied with the St. Louis Blues for fourth in the NHL (38 points) behind the Lightning (40), Nashville Predators (39) and Los Angeles Kings (39). I didn't see that coming. I didn't predict them to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I was starting to wonder if the Jets would be able to turn the corner instead of thinking about when. The talent has been there for a while, but their goaltending was among the worst in the League and their depth was questionable. Well, Connor Hellebuyck has stabilized their goaltending, finally, by playing like an all-star this season, and their depth is better with the emergence of forwards Kyle Connor, Joel Armia and Brandon Tanev, as well as defenseman Josh Morrissey. The Jets have played a fast game all season. Their high-end players like Wheeler and fellow forwards Patrik Laine, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault are confident in their ability to produce and do even more. I think some of the pressure on them has been lifted because the Jets are getting contributions from players lower in the lineup. Their defensemen, with Morrissey, a healthy Tyler Myers, Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, who hasn't scored a goal yet, Toby Enstrom and Dmitry Kulikov, have developed into one of the deepest units in the League. Kulikov has been a nice addition, adding a layer of physicality to the back end. And the Jets have been more disciplined by cutting down on their penalty minutes. They've been surprisingly impressive.
As for Wheeler, I think he's a shade below elite, which is a word I associate with players like Ovechkin, Penguins centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Lightning center Steven Stamkos and forward Nikita Kucherov, and Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson. Wheeler is a terrific player who is having the best season of his NHL career. He deserves attention for what he's doing.

Do you get the sense Steve Yzerman is imminently trying to re-sign Vladislav Namestnikov or do you see that happening in the offseason? -- @BoltsGuy04
I don't have any sense of it at this point and Yzerman typically plays things close to the vest anyway, but he doesn't need a hurry to re-sign Namestnikov, a forward who can become a restricted free agent after this season. My guess is Yzerman will wait until the offseason, because that seems to be more his style. Defenseman Braydon Coburn (Feb. 26, 2016) is the only player on the current roster who signed during the season. Kucherov signed two days before the start of last season (Oct. 11, 2016).

It's super early, but Sergei Bobrovsky for Vezina? -- @jacketsfan929
My initial vote at the quarter mark was for Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford. I felt Crawford wasn't getting near the help Bobrovsky gets from the Blue Jackets, and yet his numbers were terrific. However, with Crawford on injured reserve, my focus is now on Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning, with Jonathan Quick of the Kings and Pekka Rinne of the Predators in the mix, too. However, look out for Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens, who is roaring up behind them and could catch them and jump into the Hart Trophy race with a few more good weeks.